Engaging preschool and kindergarten students in a unit about the five senses is a time-honored tradition. While observing their reactions to tasting something sour or taking a listening walk around the classroom can be entertaining, the question remains: why is it essential to teach the five senses? In this article, we will explore the significance of this topic and provide a variety of engaging activities to enhance students’ understanding of their senses.
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What are the five senses?
The five senses serve as the primary means through which humans interact with and experience the world around them.
- Sight: the ability to perceive light and color
- Sound: the ability to hear various frequencies of sound
- Taste: the ability to discern sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami flavors
- Smell: the ability to detect chemicals in the air and identify flavors of food
- Touch: the skin’s capacity to sense pressure, vibrations, and other forms of contact
Why do students need to learn about the five senses?
Teaching students about the five senses not only educates them about their bodies but also how they perceive the environment. Here are several reasons why this topic is foundational:
- Enhances Focus: By concentrating on one sense at a time, students train their attention and focus.
- Introduces the Scientific Method: Exploring questions and conducting experiments regarding the five senses often provides students their first experience with the scientific method.
- Facilitates Understanding of Information Processing: Students learn how the five senses function and how humans process information from their surroundings, skills they will utilize throughout their lives.
- Expands Vocabulary: Discussions about the senses introduce new vocabulary and concepts, such as distinguishing tastes or understanding opposites like loud and quiet.
Activities To Teach the Five Senses
1. Head out for a five senses scavenger hunt
A nature walk is an excellent way to engage all five senses. Provide students with a list of things to see, hear, smell, and taste. Experiment with this activity in various seasons for a fresh experience each time.
2. Hang a five senses anchor chart
Create an anchor chart featuring a drawing of a child and fill it in as you discuss each sense and the associated body parts. For example, “I taste with my __________,” “I smell with my ________,” etc. Laminate the anchor chart for reuse in future years.
3. Make Oobleck
Combine cornstarch, water, and food coloring to create Oobleck and explore the words that describe how it feels to touch, drop, and manipulate in their hands.
Learn more: How To Make Oobleck
4. Play a game with Mr. Potato Head
Mr. Potato Head is an ideal toy for teaching young learners about the five senses. Create a 5-Sense Spinner with cardstock, a brad, and an arrow cut from cardstock. Divide the spinner into sections labeled Taste, Touch, Smell, Sight, and Hearing. Students take turns spinning the arrow and adding the corresponding piece to their Mr. Potato Head. Alternatively, host a race to see who can fill their Mr. Potato Head first.
5. Make a set of body part puppets
Distribute worksheets featuring drawings of the five senses body parts (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands). Have students cut out the body parts and glue them onto large craft sticks. These puppets can be used in various activities, such as playing Simon Says, matching, or identifying the written words.
6. Sort objects according to senses
Sorting games are engaging and enhance memory skills. Label five cups of a muffin tin with “I can hear,” “I can touch,” “I can smell,” “I can see,” and “I can taste.” Fill the last cup with small items like a mini marshmallow, a toy whistle, an emery board, and a pom-pom for sorting. You can also use Hula-Hoops for sorting larger items.
7. Set up five senses stations
Designate an area in your classroom for five senses activities. Use a bookshelf with five distinct bins or baskets, each containing objects and activities that allow kids to explore each sense independently. For example, the “touch” bin can include items with various textures, such as sandpaper, yarn, play dough, and steel wool.
8. Use all your senses to explore popcorn
Popcorn is a fantastic food for sensory activities, especially if you can use an air popper. Kids can see the kernels, listen to them popping, smell it as it cooks, and then taste it when it’s ready!
9. Or try Pop Rocks instead
If you’re feeling adventurous, open a few bags of Pop Rocks candy and use your senses to fully experience them. Kids will love this activity!
10. Solve the case of salt vs. sugar
This fun experiment challenges students to identify which jar contains salt and which has sugar. Create a chart with four columns and six rows. Label the first column with the senses: Sight, Smell, Hearing, Touch, and Taste. The next two columns will be for Jar #1 and Jar #2, with the last column titled “What did we learn?” Guide students as they use their five senses to identify each jar, keeping in mind that taste is the last sense they should use!
11. Put on a pair of lookers
In the delightful story The Looking Book by P.K. Hallinan, two boys discover their surroundings after their mother gives them toy glasses, referred to as “lookers.” After reading the story, distribute pairs of lookers to your students and encourage them to use their sense of sight to explore.
12. Take a listening walk
Read The Listening Walk by Paul Showers to inspire kids, then head outside for your own listening walk! Together, create a list of all the sounds you hear, or provide kids with a checklist and clipboard to record sounds independently.
13. Play a sound-matching game
Fill plastic Easter eggs or opaque medicine bottles with various small objects. Have kids shake them and guess what’s inside based solely on sound. It may be more challenging than they expect!
14. Explore up close with a magnifying glass
Enhance the sense of sight by using magnifying glasses. Allow students to observe the tiny details they can see with this added tool. Ensure you have many interesting objects available for examination.
15. Decide which flower smells the best
Instead of a taste test, conduct a smell test. Gather a variety of flowers and let kids use their sense of smell to determine which one is the most fragrant. This can also be done with candles, essential oils, fruits, and more, reminding kids that preferences can vary.
16. Write scratch-and-sniff names
On sturdy paper, write each child’s name using glue to form the letters. While the glue is still wet, sprinkle with Jell-O powder. Once dry, kids can feel the texture and smell the scent of their names! Encourage sharing and guessing different Jell-O flavors.
17. Sniff mystery scents
Place drops of different essential oils on cotton balls and put them in spice jars. Challenge kids to identify the scents without looking.
18. Go on a scent hunt
Transform your classroom into a smell safari! Set up “scent stations” with safe, familiar items like cinnamon, coffee grounds, orange peels, and vanilla extract. Provide students with a recording sheet to document their guesses and notes about each scent.
19. Learn how sounds help you make decisions
This activity illustrates how our five senses gather information while our brains interpret this data. Create a T-chart listing common sounds on the left (like a phone ringing or a baby crying) and their meanings on the right (e.g., phone ringing = someone is calling). This can be adapted for all senses.
20. Test your sense of taste with jelly beans
For a tasty twist, use Jelly Belly jelly beans known for their authentic flavors for a blind taste test. Enhance the fun by adding Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans!
21. Stroll down a sensory walk
Fill a series of plastic tubs with various materials such as beads, sand, shaving cream, water, etc. Have students line up and walk through each tub, experiencing all the different sensations.
22. Build a texture board
Collaborate with students to create a texture board featuring various fabrics, papers, and materials with different textures. Pass one sample around and ask students to describe how it feels. Attach each item to a piece of plywood and label it with its description. Keep the board accessible for exploration during free time.
23. Do an apple taste test
Students may not realize that their sense of taste is subtle yet complex. To illustrate this, cut various types of apples—such as McIntosh, Gala, Fuji, and Granny Smith—into thin slices. Allow each student to taste and vote for their favorite apple, creating a class graph to display the results.
24. Make a water xylophone
Discover the lovely sounds of a xylophone by creating a DIY version. Fill several jars with varying amounts of water, then gently strike the rims with a wooden dowel to produce different sounds. This can be a fun addition to a five senses center.
25. Make mystery touch boxes
Transform empty tissue boxes into mystery boxes. Place a different item in each box with various textures and sizes, and challenge kids to identify each item using only their sense of touch (no peeking allowed!).
26. Make and use whisper phones
Students can learn how their voices sound to others with this activity. Create whisper phones using PVC pipes (one straight piece and two elbow pieces for each phone). Place them in the reading area for students to use during storytime.
27. Use tasting bottles
Prepare small bottles (or cups) with droppers filled with various flavors. Suggestions include:
- Sugar water or juice (sweet)
- Salt water (salty)
- Lemon or lime in water (sour)
- Cocoa powder dissolved in water (bitter)
Encourage students to taste a drop of each and record their experiences in a journal.
28. Peg the sense
This matching activity can serve as practice for centers or a solo assessment. Create cards depicting various items (like a violin, fire truck, or ice cream cone) with images representing the senses at the bottom. Students will match the sense they would experience with the item. For instance, for the fire truck card, students would pin the ear for the sound of the siren.
29. Learn what it’s like to live without a sense
After students have explored the five senses, teach them about the experiences of individuals who are blind or deaf and how they adapt using their other senses. Show them a braille book and explain how touch can be used for reading. To simulate deafness, have students wear noise-cancelling headphones while watching a subtitled video. Additionally, discuss the inspiring story of Helen Keller, who learned language through touch and smell.
30. Sing songs about the five senses
Add a musical component to your lessons by incorporating five senses songs into morning meetings to reinforce vocabulary. Numerous engaging videos are available on YouTube, including those by Jack Hartmann and Silly School Songs.
31. Read books about the five senses
Reading aloud is an excellent way to teach children about the five senses. Picture books often illustrate various ways children use their senses, including fantastical and humorous examples.
32. Create a flip-book
A flip-book can combine images and text, providing students with a reference for vocabulary as they engage in various five senses activities.
33. Make sound shakers
Repurpose clean, dry frozen juice containers by attaching colorful construction paper around each. Fill them with different materials such as beans, pebbles, or jingle bells. Secure both ends with masking tape and allow kids to decorate them. Host a jam session or let students guess the contents by sound.
34. Play I Spy
Kiddos enjoy this classic search-and-find game. Select an object in the room and provide a hint like, “I spy with my little eye … something red and blue.” Students raise their hands, and you can pick someone to guess. If they guess correctly, move on; otherwise, allow another student a chance. After several rounds, let students pair up for their own version.
35. Fill a sensory bin
Fill a sensory bin with rice, beans, water beads, or sand. Include scoops, cups, and hidden toys for tactile and visual exploration. Water tables filled with various sensory items are also popular with younger students.
Love these five senses activities? Check out Easy and Fun Science Activities for Preschoolers.
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